arXiv subjects

Nora Tischler

Publications and source records attributed to Nora Tischler.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Revealing high-dimensional entanglement through symmetry

Photons encoded in discrete time bins can be routinely prepared in temporal superposition states, enabling high-dimensional entanglement and enhanced quantum communication rates. However, characterizing this high-dimensional entanglement presents significant challenges, namely due to the involved measurement complexity or reliance on restrictive assumptions that compromise the generality of traditional approaches. Here, we develop and experimentally demonstrate a simple linear-optical scheme based on particle-exchange symmetry that allows us to probe high-dimensional entanglement in time-bin-encoded states. Combining Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with suitable transformations, our method not only certifies entanglement but also lower-bounds its dimensionality using only two dichotomic symmetry-based measurements. This bound is obtained through a new rigorous theoretical analysis and can be further improved by weak, physically motivated assumptions. The scheme remains effective at any timescale, even far below the temporal detector resolution used. Our work provides a powerful state-characterization tool and demonstrates that we can prove high-dimensional temporal entanglement on timescales inaccessible to the setup.

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arXiv2026

A robust approach for time-bin encoded photonic quantum information protocols

Quantum states encoded in the time-bin degree of freedom of photons represent a fundamental resource for quantum information protocols. Traditional methods for generating and measuring time-bin encoded quantum states face severe challenges due to optical instabilities, complex setups, and timing resolution requirements. To circumvent these issues, we leverage an approach based on Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and we propose and demonstrate a robust and scalable protocol to generate and measure arbitrary high-dimensional time-bin quantum states. We experimentally implement the protocol in a photonic setup reaching high-fidelity quantum state tomographies of two and three-dimensional quantum states encoded in time-bins with short temporal separation. We also certify intrasystem polarization-time entanglement of single photons through a nonclassicality test. The demonstrated approach enables access to high-dimensional states and tasks that are practically inaccessible with standard schemes, thereby advancing fundamental quantum information science and opening applications in quantum communication.

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arXiv2026

Rigorous no-go theorems for heralded linear-optical state generation tasks

A major challenge in photonic quantum technologies is developing strategies to prepare suitable discrete-variable quantum states using simple input states, linear optics, and auxiliary photon measurements to identify successful outcomes. Fundamentally, this challenge arises from the lack of strong non-linearities on the single-photon level, meaning that photonic state preparation based on linear optics cannot benefit from the deterministic gate-based approach available to other physical platforms. Instead, the preparation of quantum states can be probabilistically implemented using single photons, linear-optical networks, and photon detection. However, determining whether an input state can be transformed into a target state using a specific measurement pattern - a problem that can be mapped to deciding the feasibility of a system of polynomial equations - is a complex problem in general. To solve it, we apply the Nullstellensatz Linear Algebra algorithm from algebraic geometry to quantum state generation; this can provide definitive no-go results by proving infeasibility when the state preparation task in question has no solution. We demonstrate this capability to validate and establish lower bounds on the physical resource requirements for the realization of several ubiquitous optical states and gates.

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arXiv2026

Detection-loophole-free nonlocality in the simplest scenario

Loophole-free quantum nonlocality often demands experiments with high complexity (defined by all parties' settings and outcomes) and multiple efficient detectors. Here, we identify the fundamental efficiency and complexity thresholds for quantum steering using two-qubit entangled states. Remarkably, it requires only one photon detector on the untrusted side, with efficiency $ε> 1/X$, where $X \geq 2$ is the number of settings on that side. This threshold applies to all pure entangled states, in contrast to analogous Bell-nonlocality tests, which require almost unentangled states to be loss-tolerant. We confirm these predictions in a minimal-complexity ($X = 2$ for the untrusted party and a single three-outcome measurement for the trusted party), detection-loophole-free photonic experiment with $ε= (51.6 \pm 0.4)\% $.

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arXiv2025

Heralded generation of a three-mode NOON state

Entangled states of photons form the foundation of quantum communication, computation, and metrology. Yet their generation remains fundamentally constrained: in the absence of intrinsic photon-photon interactions, the generation of such states is inherently probabilistic rather than deterministic. The prevalent technique of post-selection verifies the creation of an entangled state by detecting and thus destroying it. Heralding offers a solution in which measuring ancillary photons in auxiliary modes signals the state generation without the need to measure it. Here, we introduce and experimentally demonstrate a scheme to generate a three-mode two-photon NOON state, where the detection of a single photon in one heralding mode signifies the presence of the state in three target modes. We validate the generated state by estimating a fidelity of 0.823 +/- 0.018 with respect to an ideal three-mode NOON state and certifying genuine multipartite entanglement. By virtue of the high success probability and small resource overhead of our scheme, our work provides a theoretical and experimental stepping stone for entangled multi-mode state generation, which is realizable with current technology. These multi-mode entangled states represent a key direction for linear optical quantum information that is complementary to multi-qubit state encoding.

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arXiv2025

Quantum Assemblage Tomography

A central requirement in asymmetric quantum nonlocality protocols, such as quantum steering, is the precise reconstruction of state assemblages -- statistical ensembles of quantum states correlated with remote classical signals. Here we introduce a generalized loss model for assemblage tomography that uses conical optimization techniques combined with maximum likelihood estimation. Using an evidence-based framework based on Akaike's Information Criterion, we demonstrate that our approach excels in the accuracy of reconstructions while accounting for model complexity. In comparison, standard tomographic methods fall short when applied to experimentally relevant data.

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arXiv2025

Near-unity quantum interference of transverse spatial modes in an ultra-compact inverse-designed photonic device

The transverse spatial mode of photons is an untapped resource for scaling up integrated photonic quantum computing. To be practically useful for improving scalability, reliable and high-visibility quantum interference between transverse spatial modes on-chip needs to be demonstrated. We show repeatable quantum interference using inverse-designed transverse mode beamsplitters that have an ultra-compact footprint of 3 $μm$ $\times$ 3 $μm$ -- the smallest transverse mode beamsplitters for 1550 nm photons to date. We measure a Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility of up to 99.56$\pm$0.64 % from a single device, with an average visibility across three identical devices of 99.38$\pm$0.41 %, indicating a high degree of reproducibility. Our work demonstrates that inverse-designed components are suitable for engineering quantum interference on-chip of multimode devices, paving the way for future compact integrated quantum photonic devices that exploit the transverse spatial mode of photons for high-dimensional quantum information.

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arXiv2025

Heralded generation of entanglement with photons

Entangled states of photons form the backbone of many quantum technologies. Due to the lack of effective photon-photon interactions, the generation of these states is typically probabilistic. In the prevailing but fundamentally limited generation technique, known as postselection, the target photons are measured destructively in the generation process. By contrast, in the alternative approach -- heralded state generation -- the successful creation of a desired state is verified by the detection of ancillary photons. Heralded state generation is superior to postselection in several critical ways: It enables free usage of the prepared states, allows for the success probability to be arbitrarily increased via multiplexing, and provides a scalable route to quantum information processing using photons. Here, we review theoretical proposals and experimental realizations of heralded entangled photonic state generation, as well as the impact of realistic experimental errors. We then discuss the wide-ranging applications of these states for quantum technologies, including resource states in linear optical quantum computing, entanglement swapping for repeater networks, fundamental physics, and quantum metrology.

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arXiv2024

Experimental quantum randomness enhanced by a quantum network

The certification of randomness is essential for both fundamental science and information technologies. Unlike traditional random number generators, randomness obtained from nonlocal correlations is fundamentally guaranteed to be unpredictable. However, it is also highly susceptible to noise. Here, we show that extending the conventional bipartite Bell scenario to hybrid quantum networks -- which incorporate both quantum channels and entanglement sources -- enhances the robustness of certifiable randomness. Our protocol even enables randomness to be certified from Bell-local states, broadening the range of quantum states useful for this task. Through both theoretical analysis and experimental validation in a photonic network, we demonstrate enhanced performance and improved noise resilience.

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arXiv2024

Nonlocality activation in a photonic quantum network

Bell nonlocality refers to correlations between two distant, entangled particles that challenge classical notions of local causality. Beyond its foundational significance, nonlocality is crucial for device-independent technologies like quantum key distribution and randomness generation. Nonlocality quickly deteriorates in the presence of noise, and restoring nonlocal correlations requires additional resources. These often come in the form of many instances of the input state and joint measurements, incurring a significant resource overhead. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that single copies of Bell-local states, incapable of violating any standard Bell inequality, can give rise to nonlocality after being embedded into a quantum network of multiple parties. We subject the initial entangled state to a quantum channel that broadcasts part of the state to two independent receivers and certify the nonlocality in the resulting network by violating a tailored Bell-like inequality. We obtain these results without making any assumptions about the prepared states, the quantum channel, or the validity of quantum theory. Our findings have fundamental implications for nonlocality and enable the practical use of nonlocal correlations in real-world applications, even in scenarios dominated by noise.

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arXiv2023

Digital Discovery of 100 diverse Quantum Experiments with PyTheus

Photons are the physical system of choice for performing experimental tests of the foundations of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, photonic quantum technology is a main player in the second quantum revolution, promising the development of better sensors, secure communications, and quantum-enhanced computation. These endeavors require generating specific quantum states or efficiently performing quantum tasks. The design of the corresponding optical experiments was historically powered by human creativity but is recently being automated with advanced computer algorithms and artificial intelligence. While several computer-designed experiments have been experimentally realized, this approach has not yet been widely adopted by the broader photonic quantum optics community. The main roadblocks consist of most systems being closed-source, inefficient, or targeted to very specific use-cases that are difficult to generalize. Here, we overcome these problems with a highly-efficient, open-source digital discovery framework PyTheus, which can employ a wide range of experimental devices from modern quantum labs to solve various tasks. This includes the discovery of highly entangled quantum states, quantum measurement schemes, quantum communication protocols, multi-particle quantum gates, as well as the optimization of continuous and discrete properties of quantum experiments or quantum states. PyTheus produces interpretable designs for complex experimental problems which human researchers can often readily conceptualize. PyTheus is an example of a powerful framework that can lead to scientific discoveries -- one of the core goals of artificial intelligence in science. We hope it will help accelerate the development of quantum optics and provide new ideas in quantum hardware and technology.

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arXiv2023

Scalable multiparty steering based on a single pair of entangled qubits

The distribution and verification of quantum nonlocality across a network of users is essential for future quantum information science and technology applications. However, beyond simple point-to-point protocols, existing methods struggle with increasingly complex state preparation for a growing number of parties. Here, we show that, surprisingly, multiparty loophole-free quantum steering, where one party simultaneously steers arbitrarily many spatially separate parties, is achievable by constructing a quantum network from a set of qubits of which only one pair is entangled. Using these insights, we experimentally demonstrate this type of steering between three parties with the detection loophole closed. With its modest and fixed entanglement requirements, this work introduces a scalable approach to rigorously verify quantum nonlocality across multiple parties, thus providing a practical tool towards developing the future quantum internet.

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arXiv2023

A strong no-go theorem on the Wigner's friend paradox

Does quantum theory apply at all scales, including that of observers? New light on this fundamental question has recently been shed through a resurgence of interest in the long-standing Wigner's friend paradox. This is a thought experiment addressing the quantum measurement problem -- the difficulty of reconciling the (unitary, deterministic) evolution of isolated systems and the (non-unitary, probabilistic) state update after a measurement. Here, by building on a scenario with two separated but entangled friends introduced by Brukner, we prove that if quantum evolution is controllable on the scale of an observer, then one of 'No-Superdeterminism', 'Locality' or 'Absoluteness of Observed Events' -- that every observed event exists absolutely, not relatively -- must be false. We show that although the violation of Bell-type inequalities in such scenarios is not in general sufficient to demonstrate the contradiction between those three assumptions, new inequalities can be derived in a theory-independent manner, that are violated by quantum correlations. This is demonstrated in a proof-of-principle experiment where a photon's path is deemed an observer. We discuss how this new theorem places strictly stronger constraints on physical reality than Bell's theorem.

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arXiv2022

Quantum steering with vector vortex photon states with the detection loophole closed

Violating a nonlocality inequality enables the most powerful remote quantum information tasks and fundamental tests of quantum physics. Loophole-free photonic verification of nonlocality has been achieved with polarization-entangled photon pairs, but not with states entangled in other degrees of freedom. Here we demonstrate completion of the quantum steering nonlocality task, with the detection loophole closed, when entanglement is distributed by transmitting a photon in an optical vector vortex state, formed by optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization. As well as opening up a high-efficiency encoding beyond polarization, the critically-important demonstration of vector vortex steering opens the door to new free-space and satellite-based secure quantum communication devices and device-independent protocols.

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arXiv2021

Provable superior accuracy in machine learned quantum models

In modelling complex processes, the potential past data that influence future expectations are immense. Models that track all this data are not only computationally wasteful but also shed little light on what past data most influence the future. There is thus enormous interest in dimensional reduction-finding automated means to reduce the memory dimension of our models while minimizing its impact on its predictive accuracy. Here we construct dimensionally reduced quantum models by machine learning methods that can achieve greater accuracy than provably optimal classical counterparts. We demonstrate this advantage on present-day quantum computing hardware. Our algorithm works directly off classical time-series data and can thus be deployed in real-world settings. These techniques illustrate the immediate relevance of quantum technologies to time-series analysis and offer a rare instance where the resulting quantum advantage can be provably established.

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arXiv2021

Bandwidth control of the biphoton wavefunction exploiting spatio-temporal correlations

In this work we study the spatio-temporal correlations of photons produced by spontaneous parametric down conversion. In particular, we study how the waists of the detection and pump beams impact on the spectral bandwidth of the photons. Our results indicate that this parameter is greatly affected by the spatial properties of the detection beam, while not as much by the pump beam. This allows for a simple experimental implementation to control the bandwidth of the biphoton spectra, which only entails modifying the optical configuration to collect the photons. Moreover, we have performed Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry measurements that also provide the phase of the biphoton wavefunction, and thereby its temporal shape. We explain all these results with a toy model derived under certain approximations, which accurately recovers most of the interesting experimental details.

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arXiv2020

Conceptual understanding through efficient inverse-design of quantum optical experiments

One crucial question within artificial intelligence research is how this technology can be used to discover new scientific concepts and ideas. We present Theseus, an explainable AI algorithm that can contribute to science at a conceptual level. This work entails four significant contributions. (i) We introduce an interpretable representation of quantum optical experiments amenable to algorithmic use. (ii) We develop an inverse-design approach for new quantum experiments, which is orders of magnitudes faster than the best previous methods. (iii) We solve several crucial open questions in quantum optics, which is expected to advance photonic technology. Finally, and most importantly, (iv) the interpretable representation and drastic speedup produce solutions that a human scientist can interpret outright to discover new scientific concepts. We anticipate that Theseus will become an essential tool in quantum optics and photonic hardware, with potential applicability to other quantum physical disciplines.

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arXiv2019

Interfering trajectories in experimental quantum-enhanced stochastic simulation

Simulations of stochastic processes play an important role in the quantitative sciences, enabling the characterisation of complex systems. Recent work has established a quantum advantage in stochastic simulation, leading to quantum devices that execute a simulation using less memory than possible by classical means. To realise this advantage it is essential that the memory register remains coherent, and coherently interacts with the processor, allowing the simulator to operate over many time steps. Here we report a multi-time-step experimental simulation of a stochastic process using less memory than the classical limit. A key feature of the photonic quantum information processor is that it creates a quantum superposition of all possible future trajectories that the system can evolve into. This superposition allows us to introduce, and demonstrate, the idea of comparing statistical futures of two classical processes via quantum interference. We demonstrate interference of two 16-dimensional quantum states, representing statistical futures of our process, with a visibility of 0.96 $\pm$ 0.02.

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